"Sin is not hurtful because it's forbidden, but it is forbidden because it's hurtful." Benjamin Franklin

Recently, ABC News’ “investigative reporter,” Brian Ross, reported on a ministry in Alabama known as the Saving Youth Foundation.  This ministry, led by Pastor John David Young, was shown to use physical abuse in an effort to convert homosexual young men back to sexual purity and wholeness.  The ABC News report did not appear spontaneously, or out of any concern for the welfare of any of the potential converts, however.  No, it comes on the heels of a November 30, 2016 article in the New York Times, (that bastion of fake news and fraudulence) which referred to a statement on Vice-president Mike Pence’s 2000 Congressional campaign website.  On the website, Pence allegedly “advocated diverting taxpayer dollars to conversion therapy.”  The statement is certainly anathema to the LGBTQ left. 

The purpose of ABC’s report then, appears to be two fold--to discredit the Trump administration and to paint all such conversion efforts with the same broad brush of hate.  Conversion or reparation therapy is aimed at modifying the behavior and desires of homosexual men and lesbians.  Predictably, ABC’s heavily edited and choreographed report portrayed an extreme case where physical force was used in a cruel way and where enrollment may not have been voluntary.  And just as predictably, no effort was made by the network to find any other group that has a record of success in helping people overcome dangerous and destructive homosexual attraction and behavior. 

In their typical fashion, ABC’s report repeatedly used the words, “discredited” and “dangerous” to describe conversion therapy.   Many states, under pressure from LGBTQ activists, have outlawed conversion efforts, leaving millions without help or hope.  ABC rightly stated that the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association have denounced conversion therapy.  But this should come as no surprise. 

The American Psychological and Psychiatric Associations simply eliminated homosexuality and lesbianism from the Diagnostic Manual thereby pretending that aberrant homosexual behavior is not harmful, despite the obvious truth to the contrary.  The A.P.A.‘s cowardly decision illustrates the odious effect of allowing science and medicine to be corrupted by politics, especially, the deadly liberal variety.

Exodus International, one of the largest organizations involved in ex-gay conversion therapy, was targeted by LGBTQ activists and ultimately forced to close.  While in operation, they reported success rates from 20% to 46%.  The American Psychiatric Association can claim no similar success rate for its prescribed treatment of schizophrenia.  In fact, the A.P.A. admits there is no known cure for schizophrenia.  The only relief they can offer is drug treatment (with or without institutionalization), which is rarely effective and often causes horrible side effects. 

The most dangerous impact of the A.M.A. and the A.P.A condemnations of conversion therapy is the absurd implication that if they cannot offer help, none exists.  Early in the last century, the American Medical Association gave up treating alcoholics--a move which compelled the creation of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935. 

Prior to the formation of A.A., alcoholics were either put away in institutions called inebriate asylums or told, “just don’t drink.”  In 1935, two desperate men from Akron, Ohio named Bill and Bob, found hope in a personal relationship with God.  Only then, were they able to experience long-term sobriety.  Subsequently, the “professionals” have rediscovered a desire to offer alcoholism treatment because there is money to be made in addiction treatment.  But no program outside A.A. has a comparable success rate treating alcoholism, and A.A.’s help is free of charge. 

As long as people seek relief from debilitating and life-destroying behaviors such as  alcoholism, drug addiction, eating disorders or sexual perversion, there will arise those who will reach out to connect them with the miracle-working power of God through Jesus Christ.  

Christians know a God who is able to do the impossible in the hearts and minds of men and women of every nation, tongue and race.  ABC’s ignorant and antagonistic reporting on conversion therapy demonstrates that they know nothing of Him.  All the world testifies that homosexuality is bizarre, deviant, abhorrent and wicked.  No amount of political dissent or legal acrobatics will ever change that fact.  Tragically, in their denial of the truth, the so-called “professionals” condemn members of the LGBTQ community to death and despair in the name of compassion.

It’s a well-established fact that no one can be helped against his or her own will.  But only the most callous form of cruelty denies hope to those who genuinely seek to be free from destructive sin, especially for the purely pusillanimous fear that the truth might offend the political sensibilities of the obstinately depraved.